Open to criticism (Beacon series in contemporary communications) by Shayon, Robert Lewis Format: Hardcover with Dust JacketPublished by Beacon Press, 1971 For Robert Lewis Shayon, television-radio editor of Saturday Review, the critical spirit is one of the highest manifestations of human intelligence. Open to Criticism seeks to celebrate this spirit, and to spread its contagion. Shayon begins by defining the role of the critic in contemporary society, offering his own carefully articulated standards for criticism and for the writing of it. Using the insights of philosophers, ancient and modern, he finds Coleridge's rich narrative poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a source of analogies and concepts for his own definitions of criticism as a very specific way of thinking, and as a function crucial for all thoughtful citizens.
